shrithe

present singular third person shrithes · participle present shrithing · participle past shrithed · past shrithed

1. intransitivepoeticTo move; to proceed; to creep, roam, wander.

   I creep, I shrithe / on my devil's claws, / and sting whatever I touch.

   2009, Kevin Crossley-Holland, “Switzerland”, in The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood, London: Quercus, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   He realized the monster meant to attack Heorot after the blue hour, when black night has settled over all— when shadowy shapes come shrithing dark beneath the clouds.

   1973, James Edwin Miller, England in Literature, →ISBN, page 14

   Grendel to His Mother [by Kirsten Dabrowski] Oh momma, momma, I'm just not a winner, / 'Cause I got roughed up on my way to get dinner. / I shrithed to the Heorot to get human yummies / To tickle our palates and fill up our tummies.

   1993, Betty Bonham Lies, “Writing about Literature through Poetry”, in The Poet’s Pen: Writing Poetry with Middle and High School Students, Portsmouth, N.H.: Teacher Ideas Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 159

   While the winged creature coiled himself up, / the friend and lord of men stood unflinching / by his shield; Beowulf waited ready armed. / Then, fiery and twisted, the dragon swiftly / shrithed towards its fate.

   1999, “Beowulf”, in Richard [William] Barber, editor, Myths & Legends of the British Isles, Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 243

   But the cruel monster constantly terrified / young and old, the dark death-shadow / lurked in ambush; he prowled the misty moors / at the dead of night; men do not know / where such hell-whisperers shrithe in their wanderings.

   1999, Kevin Crossley-Holland, edited by Heather O'Donoghue, Beowulf (Oxford World's Classics), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

   An adder writhes out of the bush, I can see the diamonds on its back; it shrithes across the sandy soil, and bites the right foot of one of the knights.

   2003, Kevin Crossley-Holland, “The Most Bitter Day”, in King of the Middle March (Arthur; 3), London: Orion Children's Books, →ISBN; 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic Inc., October 2004, →ISBN, page 349